Adam Pengilly

Their bulging casualty ward is at breaking point, but do you think the Panthers will dwell on who's missing rather than who's playing?

''We won't use the injuries we've got as an excuse,'' fullback Matt Moylan bluntly stated. ''Every team gets injuries, but you've just got to keep playing.

''Teams won't be looking at odds and thinking they're going to beat us because the bookmakers say so. I think we've earned some respect [now].''

Most of that has been built on the back of contributions from Peter Wallace, Elijah Taylor, Bryce Cartwright and Tyrone Peachey. They won't be back this year. And Brent Kite faces a race against the clock to return to Penrith's engine room for the finals.

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But coach Ivan Cleary just adds another black jumper to the near impenetrable defensive wall he's built in the Golden West and the NRL's feel-good story of 2014 just keeps rolling on.

''I think we really understand the style of football we play in attack and defence,'' Cleary said after the injury-riddled Panthers tackled the Dragons into oblivion with a 16-4 victory at WIN Stadium on Sunday.

''You could see that right from the first minute to the end, and that's always a good sign that everyone's on the same page there. I love winning any time, but I definitely felt [on Sunday] in defence it was probably the best 80-minute defensive display in terms of composure [this year].

''We knew what we had to do and whether we were fresh or we were tired, we seemed to be able to come up with a stop.''

So much so that a frustrated Dragons – who had everything to play for as they looked to salvage their faint finals hopes – ended up with prop forwards kicking and fullbacks doing the same on the second tackle. That's what the Panthers can do to you.

Yet somehow oddsmakers still rate sides such as the Warriors and Bulldogs – no certainties to even make the finals – as equal to or better premiership chances than the Panthers.

''Our lower grades are all performing well, so when a guy gets to come into first grade he's got to take his chance, because there's so many guys playing well,'' said stand-in skipper Jamie Soward, who gestured he enjoyed the win just a ''little bit'' while flashing his Red V premiership tattoo in the post-match press conference.

Apart from Brett Morris' opening history-making salvo for the Dragons, nothing went right for a dejected St George Illawarra.

The four-pointer was worthy of rewriting rugby league history as a sweeping backline move helped the Dragons winger and Canterbury centre Josh Morris eclipse the record number of tries in the top grade by a set of brothers.

It was the 196th time the Kiama twins had crossed the stripe in their NRL career, eclipsing the Mortimer quartet – Steve, Peter, Chris and Glen – as the most prolific try-scoring siblings in Australian rugby league history.

But Panthers hooker James Segeyaro scored and laid on another either side of the break, while Jamal Idris added the icing on a sweet cake late for Cleary in the three-tries-to-one win.

Beat the red-hot Cowboys in their long-awaited return to Sportingbet Stadium next Monday night and the minor premiership contenders will all but be assured of a top four finish.

''That's definitely something we want to achieve after sitting up the top of the table for most of the year now,'' Moylan said. ''We want to make sure we get that double dip if we lose that first game.''

The Dragons (11th) don't look like they'll even have one dip after slumping to back-to-back defeats for the first time under Paul McGregor since he took over in May.

They're four points adrift of the top eight with four games to play and will be weighed down by an inferior for-and-against compared to their nearest rivals.